Simple Sweet Potato Salad

I remember a potato salad that my mom made where she would blacken whole garlic cloves in about a cup of olive oil on the stove. Blackened garlic does not smell good at all. Just remembering brings back the scent. After the garlic was blackened mom would throw out the garlic and say that the oil was now infused with the garlic scent. She would also boil peeled potatoes till they were almost mushy, leaving all the nutrients in the water to be thrown out. Then she would boil fresh green beans the same way. To make her salad she took all of these things and mixed them together and added a tablespoon of salt. Sometimes my mom would substitute cooked spinach for the green beans, which made the potatoes look green. Boiled spinach does not look good and tastes even worse.

I remember we use to eat it up, it was tasty but probably not too nutritious. She use to take that salad to every potluck or picnic that we went to and get rave reviews. I found fresh green beans on sale and thought about that salad. I also thought about ways to make the salad healthier. I know I would have to use sweet potatoes instead of russet because our preference is sweet potatoes. I tweaked, and I tweaked until I came up with a whole new, healthy salad that only has 5 ingredients, yes 5, and no burning of garlic is involved. We had this last night with Mayo Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Sprouted Toast.

Simple Sweet Potato Salad
Serves 4

3 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean, and chopped into bite size pieces
1 pound green beans, washed, ends snipped, cracked into 1 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
5 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Steam the sweet potatoes in a steamer basket with about 1 inch of water, in a covered saucepan for about 5 minutes or until fork tender. Be careful not to steam too long or the potatoes will be mushy enough for mashing. Place sweet potatoes and green beans in mixing bowl. The green beans remain raw, they are sweet and crunchy that way. Sprinkle minced garlic and salt over the top, and drizzle with olive oil. Mix, be careful not to smash the sweet potatoes. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.

The flavors may be a little different, with the raw green beans. Let me say that once you taste them raw you won't want to cook them again.